Long-term inflation expectations rise, spelling possible trouble for the Fed, survey shows
Consumers increasingly doubt the Federal Reserve can achieve its inflation goals anytime soon, according to a survey Monday from the New York Federal Reserve.
The doubt is justified.
Wait – I thought prices were already falling? I recently had a mansplainer tell me how prices were falling at his job and he was confident deflation was on its way . . . so where the hell is it?
I have yet to see prices on anything, anywhere, that have “fallen back to earth.” Their chart mentions things like eggs, apples, and fish, but, as I say, I’ve yet to see this magical reduction hit my area. Maybe it’s coming, who knows . . . We’re also told that energy costs are down by 4.6% overall. Again, I’m not seeing it.
–https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2024/02/18/deflation-only-on-paper/
–https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2024/02/28/some-retailers-fear-falling-prices/
“Longer-term inflation expectations appear to have remained well anchored, as reflected by a broad range of surveys of households, businesses, and forecasters, as well as measures from financial markets,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week during testimony on Capitol Hill. “We remain committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2 percent goal and to keeping longer-term inflation expectations well anchored.”
-CNBC, Ibid. emphasis mine
I warned about this on the job market journal last year:
Don’t miss this information:
➡️ Inflation is a helluva lot higher than any 3% and in some cases, it’s even higher than the 20% number that Scarborough tosses out.
➡️ PERMANENT INFLATION. That’s an important note. A Wall Street corporate CEO fat cat just said the quiet part out loud on national television. Inflation is theft, plain and simple, and clearly the cronies do not plan to allow prices to return to 2018-2019 levels.
So what happens if that statement is wrong and we have deflation?
Sadly, for John & Jane Q. Public: we’re screwed either way. (And so is the job market.) Meanwhile, The Fed has decided (with the help of Corpo America, I’m sure) that wages were too damn high and need to cool off.
So you’ll get less money to live on while prices don’t return to pre-pandemic, pre-insane-amounts-of-fiat-currency-flooding-the-market levels. At the same time, the dollar is being further devalued, which means whatever you do have is automatically worth less anyway.
What a mess.
–https://thejobmarketjournal.com/f/do-you-feel-overpaid published on December 18, 2023
Permanent inflation. He didn’t stutter. He said PERMANENT INFLATION.
Respondents also indicated some unease over job prospects. The perceived probability for losing one’s job in the next year rose to 14.5%, an increase of 2.7 percentage points.
-CNBC, Ibid.
People understand what they are seeing in real time. The job market is a hot dumpster fire. This is true even for freelance opportunities. Companies who never had any issues paying invoices are suddenly releasing pennies on the dollar and breaching their agreed-upon payment terms with an attitude of, “Well, umm, ergh, uh, we’ll get a check in the mail when we can.” That ain’t the sign of a robust economy!
I’ve not seen prices come down at the grocery store yet. I’ve not seen the utility bills come down. Or the cost of insurance. So these “experts” and “economists” can trot out in the media and tell us how rosy everything is – we know what we are seeing in reality.